


The Outsider

by JustAHumanMachine



Category: Original Work
Genre: Based on a song, But that doesn’t come up yet, Gen, Here they’re just becoming friends, Is this how you use tags, The detective has befriended the maniac, They’re girlfriends later in the story, This is from these guys’ canon, Where they’re not murdering each other, girls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 08:08:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25720072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAHumanMachine/pseuds/JustAHumanMachine
Summary: (Same characters as Danganronpa Nightfall, but this is from their actual story.)People are like onions: they have layers. In Veronica’s case, those layers are strange and contradictory. Nina doesn’t know what on earth is going on, but this ditzy genius is following her around, and now she has a new friend.





	The Outsider

Nina knew how people thought. When you spend years analyzing every move, every word from every person around you, you quickly learn the machinations of their mind. Almost like machines, except with feelings instead of gears. It didn’t make her care any less for people - knowing how something worked didn’t make it any less interesting. But she realized just how used she was to understanding people when that scientist waltzed into her life.

Nina didn’t understand Veronica.

At first glance, she was simple. Veronica Hisayoru - Doctor Hisayoru, she recalled, who on earth gave that woman a degree - was a maniac. She was very good at what she did, but she forgot basic things, lacked any semblance of tact, and honestly just seemed like a bit of an idiot. Combine that with her complete disregard for authority and tendency to do things just to create havoc, and Nina realized she was working with the human personification of chaos. She had made the mistake of showing Veronica common courtesy, and the scientist had imprinted on her like a lost duckling.

She had begun to grow fond of this human disaster about the same time she started to understand her - and then something happened she didn’t expect. Nina had been working late, the lights in the office dimmed, when she heard a crash on the second floor. She was about to call the police when she heard Veronica’s voice and assumed it was something she’d done. So Nina went back to work, and a few minutes later Veronica walked down the stairs and over to a cabinet, where she began to rifle through the drawers.

“So, what was that?” Nina asked in her perpetually cold tone.

“Oh, just a robber.”

She said it so casually it took Nina a moment to realize what she’d said. “I’m sorry, did you say a robber?”

“Yeah. Don’t worry, I talked him out of it.”

That was unexpected and halfway unbelievable. But the way she spoke, which such clarity and conviction, made Nina almost certain it was true.

After that, Veronica still followed Nina around, but this no longer annoyed her. Instead, Nina found herself enveloped in an enigma as she struggled to pick apart her companion’s mind. She clearly operated by a set of rules, but those rules were bizarre and not easily discerned. It was frustrating. The further she dug into her companion, the more mysteries and complexities she discovered. She was a walking contradiction. Anger. Calm. Freedom. Guilt. Pragmatism. Purity. Chaos. Order. Vengeance. Forgiveness.

Nina couldn’t understand Veronica.

But there were three things she realized.

One, she was very, very smart. As time went on, Nina began to realize Veronica’s chaotic disregard was almost an act, something she did because being an idiot was more fun than being a genius. But her actions spoke the truth - she was the one who figured out problems, she was the one who uncovered secrets, she seemed to be just one step ahead of Nina. Sometimes, in the middle of an ordinary conversation, she’d drop some pearl of wisdom and then go back cracking jokes like it was nothing.

Which led to number two - despite her comic carelessness and bouts of murderous rage, Veronica was a moral woman. She often spoke of truth and justice and beauty, her speech lasping into a sermon that seemed to leave everyone enchanted. She valued forgiveness more than anything, and often said she thought there was good in everyone. That was why she had talked the robber down instead of calling the police or blasting him with one of the experimental machines in her lab. It was an almost delusional belief in human goodness, mingling with a cold, bitter rage about human evil. And she despised lies. That was why she always spoke her mind, even when it drove everyone around her away.

And the third thing? Nina noticed that as she spoke of the world and science and justice that everything she said was contained within her mind. She never spoke of her family, never spoke of any friends. She talked some about her roommates, coworkers, teammates - people who despised her. Veronica was alone. And as much as she pretended to be okay with her isolation, she hated it. 

She did a very good job of hiding it, but every now and then the mask would crack. Nina began to understand why Veronica had clung to her at the slightest sign of affection. It seemed like she was truly disconnected from love, and stranger still, it seemed like that was somewhat self-inflicted, an odd penance for some unknown guilt.

As much as she spoke of forgiveness, she could not find any for herself.

If someone had told Nina the first day they met that she would become fast friends were Veronica, she would have laughed in their face. But here she was, sitting next to the maniac as she rambled, just a ditzy roboticist, no sign of the universe unfurling behind her eyes. Perhaps it was curiosity that kept her there. Perhaps it was pity. The one answer she would never admit - the one she knew was true - was that she had grown truly fond of the outsider.


End file.
